


Alien Bait

by scullytrash



Category: The X-Files
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-04-25
Updated: 2015-04-25
Packaged: 2018-03-25 17:08:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,224
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3818275
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/scullytrash/pseuds/scullytrash
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mulder and Scully, age twelve, are next door neighbors. With an entire summer ahead of them and a scheme to catch aliens, anything could happen.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Alien Bait

“I promise this won’t hurt,” he whispers as he slips the little rope around her ankle. She nods and smiles, knowing that even if it does, she can handle any pain, and anyways, she has no reason not to trust him. He tightens it slowly, softly, one hand hovering just over her skin and another tugging on the rope around it. “How does that feel, Scully?”

“Like I’m perfect alien bait,” she giggles.

He grins in return and goes back to fiddling with the little contraction sitting in the middle of his room. Scully examines what will hold her captive for the next several months. “Explain this plan to me again, Mulder.”

He stands a bit taller, always happy to talk about his idea. Scully’s heard the entire speech probably a dozen times, but she always asks because she knows how much he likes discussing it. “Okay, so you know that field in the woods? The one right behind our club house?” She nods, excited at the thought of their little hiding place. “Well that’s a perfect spot for aliens to show up! It’d hidden from view but open enough to land a UFO!” His arms flail around in the air, as if he’s lost control of them.

“Right, right.” (Scully doesn’t really believe in aliens, of course. Mulder doesn’t either, she’s sure of it, this is just another game of pretend, like Doctors or Astronauts. But she must act like she believes in them or else the game won’t work properly.)

“So these aliens are supposed to be incredible! Can you imagine it, life from another planet? We have to see one!” (She wonders if he has a stuffed alien toy to use - how does he intend to end the game?) “And what do aliens want more then anything?”

She shrugs, pretending to be clueless about where the speech may be going. “A bigger UFO?”

He throws his arms up in the air, exasperated, as if he isn’t secretly eager to inform her of the truth. “No! They have advanced technology, Scully, why would they come to planet Earth for that? Humans! People! They need to abduct people to learn more about us. Duh!” Scully nods, trying to keep up. (How is he going to stage a fake abduction?) “So look at this. It’s like a mouse trap, except bigger. The aliens are the mice, and you’re the cheese.”

“What a lovely compliment.”

Mulder smiles. “It means you look delicious.”

She rolls her eyes and tucks a strand of her bright red hair behind her ear. As Mulder goes back to fiddling with the contraption, she peers around his room. She’s always doing this, taking things in, even if it’s a view she has memorized - this room for example, or the way certain strands of his hair stand up, or quite literally the veins running across the back of her hand.

Mulder’s room is the basement, cold stone floor, enclosed by white brick walls. Scully’s eyes travel around the room, taking in the dresser that doubles as a desk, the bookshelf overflowing with cheap sci-fi novels, the poster hanging above his bed featuring the most stereotypical green alien with a speech bubble reading “You’re not real!” (“That’s not what aliens really look like,” he’d assured her when he’d taped it up a few weeks earlier. If anyone knew, it would be him. “I only like it for the quote! It’s supposed to be ironic.”) Everything in this little room so clearly belongs to Mulder, that Scully can’t picture it anywhere else. She may not know it yet, but she belongs here as much as the rest, sitting in her spot on the bottom stair.

“I think it’s finished,” Mulder breathes, drawing her attention back to him. They take a moment to stare at his invention in awe before he continues. “Which means now it’s time for phase two.”

“Phase two?” This time she’s truly clueless; he’s never gotten this far when discussing the plan.

Mulder seems excited to share. “Alright Scully, listen up.” He had probably been up late the night before practicing his speech. “Phase two is transporting the trap to the field. Which means you have to find a way to-“

“Mulder!” Scully groans, and he sighs at the interruption, knowing exactly where it’ll lead. “You know Bill won’t let me use the wagon! I can’t ask him again.”

His defense is prepared - “But he’s a teenager! What is he going to use a wagon for?”

“How should I know?” She crosses her arms against her chest, frustrated with her brother’s stubbornness and frustrated with Mulder’s persistence. She wishes he’d ask Bill about it himself, but she knows it won’t happen. Their feud is strong but subtle - they’ll hate each other from afar for the rest of their lives and never admit it, leaving Scully bouncing between them and forcing her to do so silently. “I’m not asking him again, Mulder. If you want the wagon, you’ll have to ask yourself.”

Scully assumes this will make him drop the idea, but instead he shrugs with a “Sure!” He has expected this. Mulder learns over to his dresser and crosses something off an odd piece of paper before turning back towards her. Scully sighs but doesn’t question. If he wants to deal with Bill, that’s his problem, and she’ll gladly stay out of it.

“Okay,” he continues, “so I think we should transport the trap tomorrow. We’ll meet here in the morning and gather everything up, eat lunch, and then head out. We can set it all up tomorrow afternoon and then begin with the final stage Friday. How does that sound?”

“Perfect.” Scully doesn’t know what all the final stage will include, except that she will probably have to sit in a field tied to a box for hours. She doesn’t mind though. Mulder has been the patient in dozens of her surgeries over the years, and in return she’s been ground control for his many trips to the moon. It’s all part of the cycle, part of their many games of pretend. Scully may not believe in aliens, but she does believe in Fox Mulder, and for that she’ll gladly be his bait.

“Great,” Mulder mumbles to himself as he writes something down on the little piece of paper.

A sudden burst of knocks hit the door and the pair both jump to face it. It swings open to reveal a small girl with long brown hair tied up in pigtails. “Yeah, Samantha?” Mulder calls.

“Hey Fox! Dana’s mom called, dinner’s ready!” Mulder’s sister is the only one who can get away with calling them by their first names.

No one else has been allowed to utter the names for years, ever since they first started playing FBI Agents. The game is both their favorites and their go to adventure if they’re ever bored. Mulder’s mom even helped them design fake badges on the computer that she had professionally printed and laminated.

“I’ll be right up!” Scully calls up the stairs. She turns to Mulder and shrugs. “See you tomorrow?”

“I look forward to it, Scully.” He watches as she grabs her backpack, waves, and climbs the stairs two at a time. Mulder stands at the bottom until she disappears behind the door, leaving him alone with his alien trap.


End file.
